There's something about the mechanics of Dust & Neon that makes this game very appealing to me. It's the most fun I've had with a twin stick shooter since Hotline Miami I think. There's definitely a challenge here, but you do get used to it rather quickly and reloading those guns and counting your shots becomes a second nature. Other people mention that it is punishing; yes, it might be but at the same time it makes you feel like the stakes are high, so you'll learn to be careful and methodical. I've only died twice in 6.5 hours of playtime, but each time it wasn't disastrous for my progression. You can unlock stuff that makes dying a lot less annoying along the way too, if you so desire. It might become a little bit grindy sometimes but that really depends on you and your confidence in your skills. I like to have an edge before I go into a boss fight, so maybe I grind a little more than I should. Speaking of which; the boss fights are super cool and feel very different from one another and from what you're used to seeing in between. Another review mentioned that there's only 3 types of guns like that's a bad thing; funny I hadn't even noticed because there's TONS of variety among those 3 types that you can buy/loot. Anyway as you probably can tell by now, I really like this game. If you watch some gameplay and you think that it looks fun, grab it. I recommend it.